Howard Everett Smith studied drawing and watercolor at a young age, including at the Art Students’ League in New York and with Howard Pyle, as well as Edmund Tarbell at the School of Art at the Boston Museum. His illustrations appeared in Harper’s and Scribner’s between 1905 and 1913, and for years he taught at the Rhode Island School of Design. In 1911, the Page Traveling Scholarship took him to Europe, where he studied for two years.

This week’s cover, Trouble Maker in the Paddock, Maryland Hunt Cup, 1932, takes place just before saddling the eventual winner of the race. Amateur jockey Noel Laing is wearing the colors of Mrs. Marion duPont Somerville, who later became Mrs. Marion duPont Scott. She commissioned the work for her home, the famed Montpelier in Orange, Va. The combination of fresh and vibrant palette, accurate and highly detailed subject, and impressionistic compositional elements is typical of Smith’s work.

Early in his career, Smith received instruction in equine anatomy from a retired veterinarian. He began painting portraits of champion horses and pictures of races and polo matches in the late 1920s and early 1930s. His sitters included such other well-known Thoroughbreds as Man o’ War and Battleship.

The painting, a 251⁄2″ by 331⁄2″ oil on canvas, is part of an exhibit at the National Sporting Library in Middleburg, Va., entitled “Afield In America: 400 Years of Animal & Sporting Art, 1585-1985” based on F. Turner Reuter Jr.’s book Animal And Sporting Artists In America.